Keith Haring // A tribute

“There is an audience that is being ignored, but they are not necessarily ignorant. They are open to art when it is open to them.” Keith Haring

Keith Haring was wise beyond his years, lived a very short life and produced work that endlessly communicated concepts – birth, sex, death and war. His ultimate goals were simple: raise awareness, unity and love; but on a very large scale.

Art is very personal, as are many events throughout our lives. Haring felt very strongly about connecting these two worlds by tagging his images everywhere he could; whether it was with a piece of chalk on an empty advertising space in the subway or a sharpie on a lamp post in the middle of the street. Keith oozed everywhere. He would design and wear his own t-shirts, hand make his own flyers, curate his own shows… Quickly crowds were beginning to draw towards him and everyone started becoming curious as to what his artwork represented or meant.

Keith was very experimental with his work. He tried all sorts of shapes and sizes; playing with positive and negative space, experimented with brushes to create different types of lines and even used both hands simultaneously at times to observe and try to understand the feeling, movement and outcome of whatever he was creating. A performance where nothing was ever planned; where the subconscious just poured out onto any surface.

Reading about it has been almost magical. I could only imagine what it would have been like to have actually been there when he was alive. Haring truly opened up his art to people and what’s great is that he was able to experience people opening up to him as well. This year, Miami will have the honor of exhibiting 200 pieces of his work from a private collection at the Moore building in the Design District from March 6-10th.